Okanagan rinks take BC Senior titles

Three-time BC Men’s champion Bob Ursel was back to winning ways when he brought his Okanagan/Kootenay rink to the 2016 Tim Hortons BC Senior Curling Championships.

His team of third Dave Stephenson of Kelowna, second Don Freschi of Rossland, and lead Fred Thomson of Nelson finished the championship with an impressive 8-1 record. They claimed the gold medal at Richmond Curling Centre on Sunday after a 7-2 victory over Victoria’s Wes Craig in the final.

Ursel, a former world junior champion, has not played competitively in recent years because of a knee injury.

Meanwhile, Ursel’s wife Leanne also struck gold at the same event, as part of Team Foster, led by White Rock resident Diane Foster.

Foster, who used to regularly appear in Alberta senior provincial championships when she was a resident there, was joined by Ursel of Kelowna at third Cindy Curtain of Penticton at second and Sherry Heath of Lumby at lead. The team didn’t dominate during the event, finishing the round robin with a 4-3 record. But they won three in a row during playoffs to take the crown from Marilou Richter’s Penticton rink, who had previously been undefeated at the competition.

Sixteen teams (eight senior men’s and eight senior women’s) from across the province competed in Richmond.

Teams Ursel and Foster will now represent BC at the Canadian Senior Curling Championships in Digby, Nova Scotia, from March 28 to April 2.